


I stopped and sought for a safe place to cross

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: As It All Burns [1]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 07:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3126242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They will not be found, she will not let the youngling be taken from her to be slaughtered in the horrific manner so many other Jedi had been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I stopped and sought for a safe place to cross

Sabé closes her eyes to better listen for the troopers who would be searching for her, one hand keeping the face of the youngling she carries turned into her shoulder. They will not be found, she will not let the youngling be taken from her to be slaughtered in the horrific manner so many other Jedi had been. So few remain, and this tiny girl - like so many others in so many hands - has been entrusted to her by her best beloved, a trust she will not fail.

_None of us will be safe, and those who spoke against the Emperor the least of all. I cannot ask any of you to do anything more than you are willing, nor more than I will myself risk._

There had been no question, no hesitation in any of them, taking the new instruction to heart. None to keep at the side of their Queen - no matter she no longer sits upon the throne, nor has for some years, ever will Padmé Amidala be their queen. Their heart and their commander, for all that she wil never call herself such.

_/You will see her again./_

The confidence of the small one is audible in the words that echo in the back of her skull, and Sabé smiles, fingers stroking over the tiny Twi'lek's lekku as she would over the hair of a human child. Reassuring her that Sabé is as certain as the little one they will rejoin Padmé when they have escaped this city of horrors Coruscant has become.

An hour passes before Sabé is confident of moving, creeping through the dark streets where the sun never reaches until she reaches the rendezvous point. No one is visible, but she would not expect them to be. Sabé holds the little Twi'lek closer as she slides between two waste bins, where she can watch the street, and yet remain hidden, her dark clothing and the youngling's cloak blending into the shadows as they wait.

"Aboute me con I stote and stare, to finde a forth faste con I fonde."

The words are more mumbled than sung, but Sabé recognizes them, and murmurs the next lines when she feels the youngling's hope winding through her own relief in the back of her mind.

"Bot wothes mo ywis there ware, the firre I stalled by the stronde."

Footsteps came closer, and after a moment, the familiar - thinner now than last she saw him, and bearing a jagged new scar on his face beneath the hood of his cloak, but recognizable nonetheless - Jedi who'd rescued her Queen long years ago comes around the rubbish bins. He smiles at her a moment, before reaching out to take the weight of the youngling, settling her against his side, where she was nearly invisible under his voluminous cloak.

"We have two hours before the first window closes." Qui-Gon presses a blaster into her hands, and Sabé checks its charge before she nods, following him closely as he leads the way deeper into the warren of Coruscant's underworld.

* * *

The transport is small and crowded, even with most of the adults left behind on Coruscant to scatter and find their own ways off, and Qui-Gon finds himself the willing center of a huddle of small bodies. Soothing fears, and promising a safety he isn't entirely certain of himself. Certainly they are safer here than they had been between the stout walls of the Temple and the shielded transport hiding on one of the moons of the system.

"What about the Masters?" The little Twi'lek who had been the last of the younglings to be brought from the deep exits of the Temple watches him with a solemn expression. She is not afraid, not for herself or those around her - indeed, her certainty of their safety is helping those around her to calm - but there is still a thread of fear in her emotions.

"They will escape as they can." Qui-Gon cannot let himself worry for them, though there are several still trapped by the siege they had met with resignation and determination. "They will meet us when they can."

The small girl watches him for a long moment before nodding, and shifting closer to him. Huddling close for warmth and comfort as they raced through hyperspace toward promised safety beyond the bounds of what had once been the Republic.

A safety that had been promised from an unexpected direction, though Qui-Gon is not entirely surprised his once-Master is willing to shelter the Jedi who have survived the treachery of the Chancellor. No matter how far Dooku may have fallen, he still is a Jedi at heart - it does not matter that he does not call himself such, nor that he had long ago left the Order. Protect the innocent, and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves - the self-same twin charges of the families of Dooku's homeworld of Serenno, and so doubly a part of his Master.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Pearl" by Mediaeval Baebes, which sparked off this AU.


End file.
